Doug McIntyre: LAPD Chief Charlie Beck soft on illegal immigrants

Of course, in L.A. we have a different troika of government -- the Unions, the Developers and the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, aka Politically Correct Charlie Beck.

On Thursday Chief Beck decided he's the decider.

We don't need no stinkin' City Council! He'll enforce the laws; he'll make the laws. He is the law.

Beck's latest edict makes it even easier and more inviting for illegal immigrants to live, work and play in Los Angeles without fear of deportation or nearly any repercussion whatsoever.

Upset that the federal government had actually created an effective tool to identify and deport illegal immigrants -- the Secure Communities program -- Beck unilaterally announced he would not turn over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement illegal immigrants arrested for so-called "petty offenses" even though he is required by law to do so.

Earlier this year Beck pushed for and got a new car-impound policy to make it more "fair" for illegal immigrants and also pushed for and got driver's licenses for some illegal immigrants, when Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assemblyman Gil Cedillo's "dream" bill last month.

With the mayor missing in action, preoccupied as he is campaigning for a spot in a second Obama administration, and half the City Council either running for mayor or fighting to stay out of the slammer, Chief Beck has jumped into the power vacuum and become a self-appointed legislator, creating new laws or deciding which laws will or won't be enforced, including federal laws.

That titan of jurisprudence, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, ruled -- at Beck's request -- that the chief has the "discretion" to decline detainer requests from ICE. When asked by the Daily News for a copy of his ruling, a spokesman for Trutanich claimed attorney/client privilege.

Attention Nuch! Your client is NOT Charlie Beck, it's the people of Los Angeles.

He'll learn that lesson next March when the voters fire him at the polls.

Meanwhile, Politically Correct Charlie Beck says he hopes to have his new policy in place by the first of the year. Still to be clarified are little details, like which "petty" crimes the chief thinks are OK for illegal immigrants to commit without fear of deportation.

Beck mentioned unlicensed street vending, drinking in public and driving without a license, which I'm sure seems very petty to Don Rosenberg, whose son Drew was killed last year by an unlicensed illegal immigrant driver in San Francisco.

"It's a matter of building trust," says the chief.

Trust for the estimated 750,000 illegal immigrants living in the city of L.A. -- a whopping 19.6 percent of our population, nearly one in five.

It's obvious the chief, the mayor and the City Council couldn't care less about the breach of trust they've ripped open between those who believe in the rule of law and those who are happy to sacrifice the sovereignty of our country on the altar of race-based politics and expedience.

Who do you have to murder to get deported around here?

Doug McIntyre's column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. You can reach him at Doug@KABC.com.